Reclaiming Our Yard

This summer was record-breakingly hot and humid. While we were inside being grateful for the air conditioner, our garden took advantage of the hothouse weather and infrequent pruning to explode.

Our new fig tree grew from six inches to six feet in a few short months. Our tomato and pepper plants also would have topped six feet if they hadn’t toppled under their own weight. Our mint went from a small, one-foot patch, to covering an entire hillside behind our back fence.

This weekend, we decided it was time to tackle our out of control plants. Weeds and clover patches were dug up. Vines were untangled. Mint was viciously hewn back. Giant tomato and eggplant bushes were ripped from the ground. And, we harvested our four to five feet tall basil plants.

Adelaide...cheering us on from her bouncer.

Harvesting the basil, stripping the leaves, and then cleaning them, literally took hours. That’s on top of the hours we already spent rehabilitating our yard. But all of the frozen pesto we now have in our freezer made the effort totally worth it. Nothing tastes as good as garden pesto.

Washed Basil leaves drying. This was not all the basil in the 

backyard. This was just all that Melinda was willing to wash. 

Matt making pesto - lots and lots of pesto.

Now let this be a lesson to us. Don’t ignore your pruning just because you have an adorable new baby and it’s 106 degrees out. Now that the garden is manageable again, we're looking forward to our first harvest of figs, currently ripening on the tree.